20 November. Organized within the framework of the Collections Programme of ICCROM, SOIMA 2009 focuses on ensuring long term preservation of sound and image collections, including films, photographs, audio and video records. The overall emphasis of the course is on the preservation and the management of small to medium size mixed collections of sound and image records.

Mr Jawhar Sircar, Secretary, Ministry of Culture, Government of India, inaugurated the four week course on 16 November 2009. Mrs Shubha Mudgal, a well known singer of Indian classical music gave the key note lecture on the value of and challenges to the preservation of sound and image heritage from the perspective of an artist.

Considering the specialized nature of the course, the working sessions of SOIMA 2009 will be organized at different locations in New Delhi and in Pune, India. The National Museum Institute, Janpath, New Delhi, is hosting the course for the first week. Participants will be given an overview of the history, significance, use and management of sound and image collections.

The 19 course participants come from 15 countries. They represent a broad range of conservation and heritage professionals in charge of sound and image collections in museums, archives, libraries and other cultural institutions.

Course partners and cooperating institutions include:

• National Research laboratory of Cultural Property, Lucknow, India
• National Museum Institute, New Delhi, India
• Archives and Research Centre for Ethnomusicology, American Institute of Indian Studies, Gurgaon, India
• Alkazi Foundation for the Arts, New Delhi, India
• Sangeet Natak Academy, New Delhi, India
• National Film Archive, Pune, India
• Fergusson College, Pune, India
• Centre de Recherche sur la Conservation des Collections (CRCC), France
• International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA)
• Masters Degree Program in Moving Image Archiving and Preservation, New York University, United States.
• National Film and Sound Archive, Australia

Member States represented: Australia, China, France, Guatemala, Ghana, Italy, India, Kenya,  Kuwait, Lithuania, Malawi, Malaysia, Pakistan, Serbia, Sri-Lanka, United States

updated on: 20 November, 2009